The Elevated Response

by Carrie Hart - 

THE PATH TO TRANSFORMATION begins with awareness and so, today, begin to be aware of the tendency you and others have to defend your position, to immediately search for ways to ascertain and shift blame, to cover up mistakes and in general, to avoid the consequences of challenging circumstances.

This may be a new awareness for you. 

The habit of defense is so ingrained, especially if you have had highly critical coworkers and family members. If you know that punishment will befall the guilty, and if you know that a search for the guilty commences upon each unfortunate circumstance, then you will have developed this habit early on. 

Be aware that this is something that must be uprooted if you are to lift yourself to the spiritual level you care to achieve. After all, at a spiritual level, there are no mistakes; there are only STEPS TO LEARNING and at a spiritual level, your desire is love for all, helping others and a heart full of forgiveness.

It is a challenge to determine how to survive, even thrive, in the day-to-day, dog-eat-dog world of work and family, while still growing as a loving and ever-maturing person. It is a challenge you can and should undertake.

BEGIN WITH NOTICING 

Begin with noticing how your mind immediately searches for a way out, looking everywhere for an excuse for yourself and criticism for another. Notice how mistakes cause fear and doubt to gain mastery in your mind, pushing aside thoughts of a more generous and loving nature.

Notice this and then begin to insert your own influence over your actions, assessing these thoughts and weighing them against other responses. Your difficult family members, friends and coworkers are exactly the teachers you need to help you unravel your defensive responses. 

For these responses will not be forcing themselves upon you as you sit quietly in the garden contemplating a rose. They will come forth when someone says, in words or in a look: "How could you have done this? How could you have let this happen?"

They come forth when voices are raised and emotions run high, when the stakes are elevated and you are on the line. And even if you cannot act outside the old ways at this moment, at least take note. Notice how fear and doubt take over. Notice how they begin to join the hunt for the guilty. Notice how frantic is the search to deflect blame, to make up excuses.

KNOW THIS AS WELL

There is another response, a response that elevates you to a different position, that lifts you out of the fray. Exactly what that response is in each situation is up to you to discover by going deep and asking, something you will need to train yourself to do under stress. 

 Do consider that it will have these dimensions to it:

Elevated Response Characteristics

• The elevated response will involve honesty, and quite possibly an admission of your role in helping cause the situation. The elevated response will involve speaking truth in a calm and objective way, a truth that goes to the heart of the matter and possibly outside the question being raised by others, for example, that the crisis is not truly a crisis at all.

• The elevated response will not be highly emotional, but will, instead, seek to calm the emotions of all concerned. The elevated response will tend toward a best solution for all concerned. The elevated response will require that you state the truth clearly and directly in a way that you are not accustomed to and that may seem very risky at the time.

• The elevated response could require a direct, one-on-one discussion with someone you blame initially, but it will never involve gossip behind this person's back. The elevated response will come from a place of power in your solar plexus, not a place of fear or doubt within your mind. And importantly, the elevated response will bring you into growth and learning, will be a foundational move toward loving self-transformation.

KNOW THIS ABSOLUTELY

Love is strong. An elevated and loving response is not a backing down from difficulty and confrontation; it is an absorption and a passing through to a place of power and knowledge, ultimate truth and loving connection. 

It will also be freeing, for once you begin to respond from this place, you will be free of the old patterns and repercussions; you will be able to face life directly and move on into new areas of growth, instead of hiding inside the house of your childhood, trembling in fear and confusion.

You will be able to shine a clear light on the cobwebs gathered in the corners, throw out the old, unfinished feast molding on the table, draw back the aging, dust-laden drapes and open the windows for the fresh air of truth and love to blow through. 

Yes, yes, this is how it should be, can be and will be. Sparkling clarity, reasoned response, truth flowing through a heart of love, no matter where, no matter what the circumstances, each challenge just another step in upward transformation toward the ultimate truth of being which is the pure and clear expression of your personal truth made alive and glowing with love!

Affirmation

I lift myself out of old ways and patterns and into the glowing truth of light and love. I notice how I think and how I act under stress and begin to let my loving heart and generous soul enter into my deliberations and my actions.  

I grant myself new space to allow my light and love to enter before I act, before any words pass my lips. I give myself permission to hold off a response until I have had time to allow my loving light to shine within. 

I am full of power, power stemming from love and knowledge and a deep connection with my higher self and that of others. I am power. I am love and light. I am!

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